Shadows and Doorways
by SlytherinElektra
Summary: The Doctor appears, gravely injured and unable to regenerate, in Amy and Rory's doorstep. Shameless Eleven Whump!
1. Chapter 1

A single tear rolled down the Doctor's cheek.

His head was inclined against the cold wood of the door. Everything was cold today, the air, the floor and each every object. His own hands were cold. Everything.

Ke knew he shouldn't have come here, he knew this was a mistake. Amy and Rory were good people, they didn't deserve to see him like this. He looked at the bloodied mess that his ruined shirt had become. He knew his face was probably a horrible sight as well (he could feel the blood still dripping in some areas and dried in others) but didn't care anymore.

As he, the mighty Doctor, slumped against his friends' door, he stopped caring for a moment and just listened. He heard the birds, some closer, some further and he heard distant voices of people in their homes and in the the street. He heard the cold wind softly whistling all around him and some steps behind him.

No guilt, no pain, no TARDIS, no Gallifrey... just him on that door and the cold wind.

Him on earth, that imposibly complicate but exquisite planet. Good ol' earth.

Even after the length and horrors of his life, he was sad to leave.

How could he had known, when he went to Prykops, a planet he hadn't visited in 200 years, that they'd be at war and he'd be taken for a spy? How could he know about the advanced torture techniques and venoms? How to know that they wouldn't let him explain anything for fear of mind-controlling techniques? How to know that their latest advance was a venom that, had, among its many side effects the disabling of elements required in a very much needed regeneration?

He couldn't have known.

After countless times being lucky, this had been the time in which he was luckless.

When he finally reached the TARDIS and was able to scape it was already too late. After days and days of being in the hands of horrible soldiers (who had stripped him of the TARDIS key in the very beginning) there didn't seem to be much it could do. The only thing that the ship was able to do was leave him on the Ponds' doorstep, so he didn't have to die alone. Sad but true. The Doctor hoped it wouldn't be too sad for his beloved ship.

The pain in his stomach was intense and, the Doctor felt like screaming but found no strength to do so. Just the same way he'd had no strength to call the buzzer or scream for help. This was it. No wars, no epic confrontations, no alien menaces... just some very bad luck. Maybe it was for the best. Maybe his passing would be a blessing for those who knew him. This way, he wouldn't be able to screw up anyone else anymore.

It was cold.

The wind on his face was cold. He felt cold... colder than he'd felt for centuries. He felt the cold in his very bones, in his slowing hearts, spreading, spreading. He shivered, still slumped against the door, wondering what the Ponds would be doing now. And Donna and Rose and the rest of them, people who had to taught him so much. He vaguely wondered if he would be missed.

And the cold was almost too much.

His eyes were slowly closing now, the fog on his head had gotten too thick. As the darkness came he wondered if it would as cold as this. Cold like the space. So, so cold. Still, his body kept on functioning; slower, and less sharp but still there. He could breathe and blink and blood kept dripping under him. He would miss breathing, even if it was cold air like this one. The pain was more tolerable now, less sharp, as if the cold had numbed it. Maybe it had. He just didn't know anymore.

On that wooden door and on that chilly day, the world, little by little, ceased to exist. The streets started becoming blurry and the floor wasn't even there. As The Doctor finally closed his very tired eyes the sky and the wind stopped existing too. There was no more.

No more world.

No more life.

No more pain.

Only the cold remained.

Before he gave in completely into the darkness he heard the TARDIS making some loud horrible noises, probably trying to get someone's atenttion. And then the door opened and someone someone holding him and calling his name.

_Farewell, my friends._

A/N: Hope you liked the start! I'm guessing it will be three or four chapters. The title is inspired by a song (more like and intermission) called Shadows/Doorways by Pale Young Gentlemen (great band). All feedback appreciated!

You know you want to review!


	2. Chapter 2

The worst heat wave of the last twelve years. That was what the telly said, anyway. Amy and Rory, sprawled on their couch, only dressed in their cotton underwear, didn't pay it much mind. It was way too hot to think, or move, or speak. They could only move every now and then to go to the fridge and drink some water or ice tea or go the shower and have a freezing shower, to get all that sweat off.

It was almost impossible to think in that heat. All the neurons seemed to be melting in one's brain. That's why Amy didn't much of that sound in the back of her head that was so similar to the TARDIS. She was probably imagining it, her heat-addled brain was inventing. A lot of times she'd thought she heard it but when she got out there was no one there. Nah, this was just the heat. One could almost feel the neurons melting. Probably just the heat. Like the people who are in the desert and hallucinate an oasis. Most probably.

Rory changed the channel. It was a Sunday afternoon and there was nothing decent to watch. Just a few reruns of old shows and straight-to-tv dramas of women who didn't know they were marrying a psychopath. Enough to turn the telly off, really, but it provided a nice distraction. So they continued to be there, doing nothing at all. It was not the most exciting thing in the world, but the time passed.

Slowly.

Painfully slow.

And then, just when the psychotic husband was exposing his ridiculously predictable evil plan, and the Ponds were getting deeper in their stupor, Amy heard it again, louder this time, clearer. The unmistakable whooshing of the TARDIS right their door.

"Do you hear that?" She asked Rory.

"You can hear it, too?"

"He's here?"

"He's here!"

They were up and running to the door the in a moment, until Rory stopped.

"Wait, shouldn't we get at least a bit dressed?"

"Who cares about clothes?" Amy answered, excited. This Sunday was going to be interesting, after all.

"Let's go to some frozen planet!" Yelled Rory.

But when they got to the door all the excitement ended. Because there was a dead weight on the door. A dead weight that had been there, in the sun and the heat since Amy had first heard the TARDIS. A dead weight that was on top of a pool of blood. A dead weight wearing a weed jacket and a bowtie and….

"No!" This could not be happening! Not again!

Rory took over the situation, always the professional.

"Doctor?" No answer "Doctor, can you hear me?"

Rory efficiently checked the wounds and the vitals of the fallen alien but what he found made no sense…. No sense at all.

"Well?" Amy asked, not liking Rory's silence one bit. "What's wrong?"

"He's alive, but he's badly wounded and bleeding…"

"Well, I can see that, but we can fix it, can't we?" She interrupted him, already heading to get the first aid kit. "Can't we Rory?"

"Yeah, but it's not just that…"

Rory tried to figure out what was happening. The cuts and wounds were pretty normal, he would clean, disinfect and dress them, as usual… but there was something else. Something else apart from the wounds and the unconsciousness. Something that worried him as much or even more.

"Well, what is it?" Amy asked when she got back with the kit.

"He… He's cold… I don't understand wh-"

"But it's a million degrees out there! And he's been for we don't know how long! How can he be cold?"

"I know, Amy! But he's not even the same species as us and I am just a nurse, ok? I know just as much as you do."

"Should we… I don't know, move him or something?" Amy asked, desperately trying to be useful.

"No, I rather treat these bleeds before we move him." Rory answered, while efficiently starting the cure.

"I'll go prepare the other bed." Amy said and left.

Truth was, she didn't want to be there. When she had heard the TARDIS she thought this was going to be a time for new adventures, new planets and probably some eccentricities from her friend the Doctor. But like most things, travelling with the Doctor had both a good and a bad side and today was going to be bad. She knew it. And she'd had enough of the bad. Being kidnapped. Losing Rory (more than once). Was it never going to end? Did the danger and life-threatening situations have to follow the Doctor everywhere? Even to uneventful hot Sundays in which there nothing on the TV. Even there.

Downstairs, Rory's thought didn't differ much. He was wondering what was happening to the Doctor an how to counteract it, but also thinking what new dangers this meant. He hoped it didn't mean dying again, as he was pretty sure that he had used up all his spare lives. But it was also true that he owed much of what he had now to the Doctor and couldn't imagine his life without the time lord's implication. He kept doing his job while the Doctor remained limp. If he was awake, at least, he would be able to tell them what was wrong, how he got so injured and so cold and how to fix it. But why make things easy when they can be utterly complicated?

Amy went back own just as Rory was cleaning The Doctor's face after dressing the other injuries. He looked better now, even if all the silence was a bit unsettling. Amy kept expecting him to gasp and suddenly wake up, probably ask why he wasn't in Mars anymore and greet them warmly as usual. But now the _warm _part sounded like a bad joke.

"Can you help me move him?" Rory asked and Amy and was there in seconds.

Rory had hoped that with the movement their friend would react, give some signs of waking up. No such luck. Him and Amy left him in the newly prepared bed and tucked him under two layers of blankets. In spite of the heat, the Doctor kept getting colder and this was the most basic defense. Amy and Rory looked at each other.

"What do we do now?" She asked.

"Wait…I wish I knew what to do, but I don't. Whatever he had, he could have caught in any moment in time and any place in space. And he's an alien from a different species, to top it all. I don't have that kind of knowledge and we don't have anything to point us…."

"What?"

"There is a library in the TARDIS, right? Among that bunch of books there maybe something on intergalactic sickness or how to heal time lords, or something!"

"Yeah, sounds good." Amy said, a small smile in her face. "Let's go!"

"I think one of us should stay with him in case he wakes up or something."

"Yeah… and I think it's my turn to play nurse. Go to that blue ship and bring back as many books and stuff as you can."

She said and they shared a small kiss, before Rory took off.

Amy sat in a chair next to her childhood friend and just stroked his cold brow. He was shivering now and the blankets hadn't helped one bit. And he was pale, oh so pale. Her eyes were a bit watery but she decided to have faith. Everything would be all right. Right?

"What is wrong with you now, raggedy man?" She asked, receiving no answer.

Rory entered the blue box without any problem, the door was open. The problem came when he tried to reach the library, and there were so many corridors… And then it started moving. And doing that whooshing sound it did when it took off. But it couldn't be taking off, now, could it? There was no one piloting it.

"Great" Rory said, to no one in particular "I am in a spaceship, being randomly transported to some unknown planet….. in my boxers. Just great."

A/N: Not as poetic as the first part (I'm so glad you liked it ;) ) but it has some plot.

Reviews are love!


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